Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2007

EF1 tornado, Marshall, Texas, March 27, 2007

This EF1 tornado ran 10.0 miles across Harrison County on March 27, 2007, touching down at 11:31 AM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $20,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. EF065 to 85 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. EF2111 to 135 mph

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. EF3136 to 165 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. EF4166 to 200 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. EF5over 200 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
EF1
Date
March 27, 2007
Touchdown
11:31 AM CDT (16:31 UTC)
Lifted
11:45 AM CDT (16:45 UTC)
On the ground
14 minutes
Path length
10.0 miles (16.1 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$20,000
County
Harrison County
Touchdown point
32.458, -94.455
Lift-off point
32.610, -94.409
Record number
0703271031-01

What the Weather Service recorded

An upper level storm system moved across the region during the late morning...afternoon and evening hours of 03/27. Strong winds aloft allowed supercell thunderstorms to develop...some of which produced tornadoes...strong and damaging wind gusts as well as large hail.

A supercell thunderstorm moved northeast across Harrsion County Texas and spawned a tornado just west of Marshall, Texas. Damage consisted of soft wood trees with large branches broken or twisted...one hard wood blown down and a large barn blown apart. The tornado was rated an EF1 on the new Enhanced Fujita Scale. Damage Indicator (DI): SBO. Degree of Damage (DOD): 6.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The warnings

2 minutes of warning. NWS SHV issued a tornado warning for this county at 16:29 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 17:30 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
16:25 UTC17:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningSHV
16:29 UTC17:30 UTCTornado WarningSHV
17:33 UTC18:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningSHV
17:40 UTC03:00 UTCTornado WatchSHV
17:44 UTC18:45 UTCTornado WarningSHV
18:02 UTC22:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningSHV

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:31 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 12:00Z

4.5 hours before the tornado, 64 km from the path. March 27, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA at 12:00Z on 2007-03-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -85154, lifted condensation level 738 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Shreveport, LA at 12:00Z on 2007-03-27The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 160 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-85154 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
738 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
160 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
147 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 00:00Z

7.5 hours after it, 64 km from the path. March 28, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA at 00:00Z on 2007-03-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1470 joules per kilogram, CIN -16, lifted condensation level 902 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Shreveport, LA at 00:00Z on 2007-03-28The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 185 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 43 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
1470 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-16 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1483 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
902 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
43 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
185 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
327 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.8
Supercell composite
9.6
0-3 km lapse rate
6.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 56 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 16:31 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
16:31 UTCTORNADO7 Sw MarshallHarrison, TXAN EF1 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN SOUTHWEST OF MARSHALL...AND MOVED 10 MILES NORTHEAST STAYING WEST OF LOOP 390...ENDING JUST BEFORE REACING HWY 59. DAMAGE CONSISTED OF SOFT WOOD TREES WITH LARGE BRANCHES BROKEN AND TWISTED...
16:35 UTCTSTM WND DMG6 W MarshallHarrison, TXTREES DOWN AND A BARN WAS DAMAGED
16:50 UTCTSTM WND DMG8 Wsw MarshallHarrison, TXTREES BLOWN DOWN ALONG THE I20 CORRIDOR IN BETWEEN MARSHALL AND HALLSVILLE.
16:55 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 N MarshallHarrison, TXTREES DOWN
17:40 UTCTORNADO3 E ScottsvilleHarrison, TXAN EF0 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN 3 MILES EAST OF SCOTTSVILLE...AND MOVED NORTHEAST FOR ABOUT 6 MILES NEAR THE COMMUNITY OF LEIGH. DAMAGE CONSISTED OF SOFT WOOD TREES WITH LARGE BRANCHES BROKEN AND TWISTED.
18:29 UTCFLASH FLOODMarshallHarrison, TXNUMEROUS STREETS FLOODED IN AND AROUND MARSHALL.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2007 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of March 27, 2007

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 2712:40 PM CDTEF0Harrison, TX6.025
March 272:14 PM CDTEF0Lafayette, AR5.075$80,000
March 272:35 PM CDTEF1Webster Parish, LA8.075$25,000

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.